Southern DHB goes live with Safety1st

Southern District Health Board has joined Canterbury and Nelson Marlborough in rolling out the Safety1st electronic risk management system as part of a South Island-wide implementation.

Safety1st is an incident management system designed by Canadian firm RL Solutions that allows staff to more easily report incidents involving patient safety.

Southern DHB said Safety1st will standardise the way in which information about risk, incidents and patient feedback is captured at both a local and regional level.

It will also enable staff to access useful information and produce comprehensive, meaningful reports at a district and regional level.

To be successful, it will require staff to be willing to participate in an open, transparent culture of safety, Southern DHB's director of quality, Tina Gilbertson, said.

“Our staff are the eyes and ears of our organisation and we need them to tell us what they see happening, where risks and incidents occur, so we can learn from this within our district as well as the region,” Ms Gilbertson said in a statement.

“We want staff to feel confident about sharing their experiences and we welcome an open approach to information sharing. At the end of the day we see patient safety as everyone’s responsibility.”

RL Solutions' technology is used by over 1,00 healthcare organisations around the world.